Today marks the middle of National Truck Driver Appreciation Week (NTDAW) 2017. While it’s quite hard to fathom everything truck drivers do for our country, this post is going to try to illustrate the trucking industry’s impact on our economy.
2016 Trucking Statistics
The American Trucking Association released its ATA American Trucking Trends 2017 in mid-August. The annual report is filled with information about how the industry performed the previous year. Here are a few of the findings.
Trucking Freight
In 2016, the trucking industry accounted for 79.8 percent of the United States’ freight revenue. That means trucks moved 10.42 billion tons of freight, or 70.6 percent of all domestic freight tonnage.
Trucker Miles
The report also states 33.8 million trucks contributed to a total of 450.4 billion driving miles in 2016. That’s nearly 15 percent of the total miles traveled by U.S. drivers in 2016.
Just imagine how many hours truck drivers spent sitting in traffic to ensure your package was delivered, your grocery store had food, or your office had the necessities for day-to-day operations.
Trucking Industry Employment
The trucking industry employed 7.4 million Americans in trucking-related jobs in 2016. Of the 7.4 million, only 3.5 million were employed as truck drivers. Men continue to dominate this field with women representing six percent of truck drivers. However, over a third (38.7 percent) of drivers in 2016 were minorities.
Business Breakdown
Finally, the trucking industry can best be classified as an industry made up of small businesses. Roughly 91 percent of motor carriers operate six or fewer trucks, while 97.3 percent operate less than 20. Therefore, it’s important that our country continues to recognize all the hard work performed by each and every truck driver.
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